The mbiri fruit fell from the tree and silently entered the water, leaving a marble-like surface.
Since the last full moon, rain had ceased to fall in any of the Congolese regions. The nourishing waters seemed to be held somewhere in the blue of the clouds. All the rivers, streams, and creeks of the vast Congo Basin were relentlessly drying up. Irrigation became problematic, skins withered, and dehydrated bodies grew emaciated. Unfortunately, the elderly and infants were the first victims. How could a mother nurse her child when her maternal breast was nothing more than an empty skin?
Such suffering had not been experienced since the colonial era when the spirits of the ancestors and genies felt betrayed by the arrival of missionaries, traders, and foreign soldiers. Although those newcomers brought cassava and maize, they also brought new religions, myths, and tales where the spirits and genies were excluded. They had entrusted the rainbow python, the master of wetness and dryness, with the task of displaying its power to raise awareness among the people. Mbumba is both male and female, with a voice that can be harsh or soothing. Once before, for two lunar cycles, no rain had been seen, not even a single drop. The same tragedy was recurring, but what had angered the ancestors and genies this time? The Middle Congo colony had faded under the sun of independence, giving birth to a first republic, which later became a people's republic, and so on. Now, drought was striking the entire republic. From the hills of Mbomo, the residents could see that the forest struggled to drape itself in the morning mist released by the trees. At the Lion's Court in Nkwe Mbali, the waterfalls whispered. In the rapids of the capital, there was only a trickle of water between the protruding rocks. The most fatalistic attributed it to climate change.